Student union voting on whether MUN should sell off oil and gas shares

Board members of the Memorial University Students' Union (MUNSU) in St. John's are set to vote Wednesday night on whether to support a movement for the university to divest itself fromoil and gas companies.

"Ithink there comes a point where we have to be factual about what is causing global warmingand where the ties are, and not just what's going to help us financially at this moment but also what's going to help this province long term," said Sarah Shannon, aMUNSUexecutive director.

• Get out of oil and gas investments, profs tell Memorial University

Student union membershave been asked byDivest MUNto take a stance on the issue, following a decision by the graduate student union and the faculty associationto support divestment.

But ahead of the vote, it doesn't appear Shannon'ssentiment is a unanimous one among MUNSU members.

"For us to just pull out nowand not know where we're going, with no direction, Ithink is very irresponsible," said MUNSU director-at-large Pierce Collier.

TheWednesday vote islargely asymbolic one, as the actual power to sever ties with oil and gas belongs to the university's board of regents.

Work terms at risk?

Divestment from pension and endowment funds wouldn't necessarily mean the university would no longer maintain other ties with the fossil fuel sector, although Collier worries aboutpotentialbacklash.

"Students, especially in businessand engineering, rely heavily on work terms that are often provided by these companies," said Collier.

"And Ifeel like if we take a stance to divest you could see absolutely an impact on those work terms."

In a statement to CBC,Statoil said it would continue to support Memorial University.

"Divestment wouldn't impact our relationship with the university," read the statement.

"We take a broadened approach when looking at programs and partnerships to invest in, including support for arts and culture, sports and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)."

Down the road

Collier said he isn't against divestment in theory, but added he isconcerned about what it would mean to the university pension fund's finances to sell off its stocksat a time when the price of oil is low.

The pensions fund currently has more than a billion dollars invested, but it's not clear how much of that is in the oil and gas sector.

"Why not wait four, fiveyears down the road when the price of oil is back to say, $70 or $80a barrel?Then the pension fund can get a return," said Collier.

However,Shannon said any action does not need to be immediate.

"Divestmentdoes definitely not meanthatwe have to cut ties with oil and gas companies right away. It's just making sure that long term, we have somedifferentpriorities,"said Shannon.

Collier said further consultation with the larger university student body is needed on the issue, and he hopes a public forum set for the near future will add further clarification on what actions the student union should take.